Download Saxo Grammaticus (Volume 1): Gesta Danorum: The History Of The Danes (Oxford Medieval Texts) Ebooks For Free Saxo was probably a canon of Lund Cathedral, at that period a Danish cathedral, and lived at the end of the twelfth century. He was in the service of Archbishop Absalon, who encouraged him to write a history of his own country from the beginnings up to his own time, with a strong Christian bias. Starting with the myths and heroic tales of primitive Scandinavia, he devoted the first nine of his sixteen books to legendary material before dealing with the first kings of the Viking age and finished in 1285, after relating the earlier exploits of King Cnut Valdemarsson. The activities of the Danish kings were intimately bound up with the monarchies of Norway and Sweden; Cnut the Great, one of Saxo's heroes, whose empire stretched as far as Britain and Iceland, was ruler of both these countries. In the last books Saxo took particular concern to describe the campaigns of Valdemar the Great and his warrior archbishop, Absalon, against the Wends of North Germany.The work is a prosimetrum, that is, in six of the first nine books he inserts poems, which are intended to parallel specimens of old Danish heroic poetry in Latin metres. Saxo's Latin prose style is often complex, based as it is on models like Valerius Maximus and Martianus Capella, but he is a lively and compelling story-teller, often displaying a rather sly sense of humour, and an interest in the supernatural. He is the first author to give a full account of Hamlet, whose adventures he relates at some length, the elements of which in a great many respects correspond surprisingly closely with the characters and incidents of Shakespeare's play.Volume I of Saxo Grammaticus contains an introduction from the editor, and the first ten books of Saxo's work. Series: Oxford Medieval Texts Hardcover: 880 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (May 26, 2015) Language: English ISBN-10: 0198205236 ISBN-13: 978-0198205234 Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 2.2 x 5.9 inches Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item Best Sellers Rank: #2,102,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #79 in Books > History > Europe > Scandinavia > Denmark #6223 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Religious Studies > Christianity #10392 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe Saxo Grammaticus (Volume 1): Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes (Oxford Medieval Texts) Saxo Grammaticus (Volume II): Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes (Oxford Medieval Texts) The Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus (Forgotten Books) Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo (Suny Series in Medieval Middle East History) (Suny Series, Medieval Middle East History) CONTRATOS EMPRESARIAIS - VOLUME 1: Teoria Geral e Espécies: Compra e Venda; Transporte de Mercadorias e de Pessoas; Mandato; Representação Comercial; Gestão ... Empresarial Livro 2) (Portuguese Edition) Books of Breathing and Related Texts -Late Egyptian Religious Texts in the British Museum Vol.1 (Catalogue of the Books of the Dead and Other Religious Texts in the British Museum) Countrymen: The Untold Story of How Denmark's Jews Escaped the Nazis, of the Courage of Their Fellow Danes--and of the Extraordinary Role of the SS Danes in Wisconsin: Revised and Expanded Edition (People of Wisconsin) Literatura, Ideología y Sociedad. "La Gesta del Marrano" de Marcos Aguinis (Poliedros) (Spanish Edition) Modesto M. Mora, M.D.: La Gesta de un Medico (Spanish Edition) The Making of Medieval Forgeries: False Documents in Fifteenth-Century England (British Library Studies in Medieval Culture) Once Upon a Kiss: A Medieval Romance (Medieval Heroes) A History of the Sikhs: Volume 2: 1839-2004 (Oxford India Collection) (Oxford India Collection (Paperback)) Jewry-Law in Medieval Germany: Laws and Court Decisions Concerning Jews (Texts and Studies (American Academy for Jewish Research), V. 3.) The Beowulf Manuscript: Complete Texts and The Flight at Finnsburg (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library) The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 1267) Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts The Paradise of Submission: A Medieval Treatise on Ismaili Thought (Ismaili Texts and Translations) History: Human History in 50 Events: From Ancient Civilizations to Modern Times (World History, History Books, People History) (History in 50 Events Series Book 1) History: British History in 50 Events: From First Immigration to Modern Empire (English History, History Books, British History Textbook) (History in 50 Events Series Book 11) .